Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen demanded answers Thursday from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg after the company suspended the No Kings Coalition’s official Instagram account during the group’s nationwide day of action.
In a letter shared exclusively with The New Republic, Van Hollen asked why the coalition’s Instagram was mysteriously shut down for more than an hour during a major day of early voting activations over the weekend. The administrators did not regain access for hours, restricting their ability to communicate with supporters.
Van Hollen asked the MAGA-friendly technocrat whether Meta had communicated internally about the No Kings Coalition, and to explain why it took so long to restore the administrators’ access to the account. So far, Democratic Senators Ron Wyden, Chris Murphy, Richard Blumenthal, and Jeff Merkley have joined Van Hollen’s probe.
Van Hollen also demanded an explanation for Meta’s vacillating excuses for the incident. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone initially claimed Sunday that the account was shut down due to high frequencies of posting, sharing, and commenting. The next day, however, he claimed it had to do with the account’s “reading” behavior.
“Not only are Meta’s shifting explanations alarming, the substance of the claims paint the picture that one of the largest social media companies in the world is somehow incapable of handling technical concerns about an account without shutting it down for hours,” Van Hollen’s letter stated.
The Maryland Democrat also questioned why the account was not included in Meta’s cross-check program, which allows the company to designate civic entities to ensure human review before a decision is made that could severely jeopardize participation in significant political events.
“This is not the first time that Meta has experienced shutdowns or lapses around political speech leading up to the 2026 elections,” the letter stated, referring to a so-called “glitch” that disrupted Ohio Democratic Senate nominee Sherrod Brown’s campaign ads on Facebook and restrictions placed on Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s Instagram ahead of his country’s elections. On Tuesday, Meta’s Oversight Board called the incidents part of a series of “recurring enforcement failures in Meta’s election integrity efforts,” and that it was unclear why the error was not caught by the company’s mistake-prevention systems.
“How will you guarantee that accounts sharing critical election and civic information are not incorrectly shutdown in the future? What steps will Meta take between now and election day to ensure that accounts sharing this information are not taken offline without notice?” the letter asked.
With the midterm elections fast-approaching, Van Hollen asked that Zuckerberg provide lawmakers with responses by October 29.
The incident raises serious concerns about Meta’s impartial handling of voting information and political speech—particularly in light of the company’s close financial relationship with the Trump administration. The company awarded nearly $25 million straight into Donald Trump’s pocket, $10 million to a Trump-aligned dark money group, $5 million to the president’s White House ballroom, and $1 million to his inaugural fund. In return, Meta stands to make billions in hefty government contracts and data center handouts.